340: Codenamed "Plague God"! I have become the enemy's nightmare!

In the deep underground rift, within the starship cabin, Lin Fan's figure condensed into form once again.

Instead of stretching as he usually did, he immediately pulled up the System interface, his gaze sharply fixed on the few lines of warning prompts that had just appeared.

[Warning: Unknown Soul attack detected, interfering with your resurrection process...]

[Interference cleared...]

[Hint: 'Soul Hounds' share perception through a special network called the "Divine Soul Net". Theoretically, destroying any network node will cause their tracking ability to be blocked for a short time.]

Lin Fan's pupils contracted slightly.

The resurrection process had been interfered with.

Although it was only a slight delay, this was the first time the System had been affected by an external force.

Those skeletal monsters, resembling hunting dogs, were the first entities truly capable of posing a fundamental threat to him.

His fingers tapped lightly on the main console as his brain raced.

"Divine Soul Net..."

"Network node..."

Lin Fan muttered to himself, the trace of gravity in his eyes quickly replaced by a cold excitement, like a hunter eyeing its prey.

Since it was a network, there had to be servers, switches, and a hierarchy of primary and secondary nodes.

As long as he took out that "server," the entire network would collapse.

Before, he was the prey being hunted.

But now, he knew the enemy's weakness.

The dynamic of offense and defense had shifted.

The expression on Lin Fan's face shifted from gravity to playfulness, finally settling into a brilliant, slightly malicious smile.

He stood up, walked to the main console, and started the starship.

The starship slid silently out of the rift. Without performing a space jump, it simply cruised at a conventional speed toward a vast, dead, and empty Star Domain.

Then, he came to a stop.

He released a wisp of Qi, so faint it was almost negligible, through the starship's external Formation.

That wisp of Qi was like a flicker of light cast into the dark deep sea—insignificant, yet carrying a unique life signature.

He was fishing.

Using himself as bait.

...

Flagship, "immortal throne".

On the screen in front of the Demon Leader, a red dot representing a life signal suddenly flickered.

"Locked on!" the adjutant in charge of monitoring let out a roar of wild joy.

"Position is in the K-78 Star Domain! He's stopped! He isn't moving!"

The Demon Leader stood up abruptly, the Soul fire of annihilation in his eyes burning intensely.

That damned bug! He had finally shown his tail!

"Pass on my orders!" His voice carried a bloodthirsty pleasure.

"The Seventh, Ninth, and Twelfth Soul Hound squads, immediately surround him from three directions! This time, do not give him any chance to self-destruct! Use the 'Soul Net' to imprison him directly; I want him alive!"

"Yes!"

...

In the cold Void Realm, Lin Fan stood quietly in front of the starship's porthole, watching the unchanging darkness outside.

His expression was calm, not at all like prey about to be surrounded and hunted by three elite squads.

They were coming.

He could feel the sense of prying locked onto his own Soul Origin, rapidly approaching from three different directions.

Cold, hungry, and tyrannical.

Soon, three squads of pitch-black shadows tore through space and appeared around the starship.

More than thirty Soul Hounds, their sickly green Soul fire illuminating the Void Realm like a ghost domain.

Among them, three Soul Hounds were noticeably larger than their peers, and the Soul fire burning on their bones was a deeper ink-green.

They were the "network nodes" of these three squads.

No communication, no tactics.

The moment they saw Lin Fan, all the Soul Hounds turned into bolts of black death, pouncing on the starship from all directions!

However, just as they were about to tear apart the starship's hull, Lin Fan's figure abruptly vanished from the cabin.

S-Rank Skill — [Shadow Shuttle]!

The next instant, he appeared outside the starship, right behind the ink-green Soul fire leader of the Soul Hound squad attacking from the left.

The distance was less than three feet.

The leader-level Soul Hound seemed to sense something and whipped its head around.

But what it saw was Lin Fan's smiling face, mere inches away.

And a fist, compressed to the extreme, shining with the radiance of destruction.

"Hello."

Boom!

Without giving it any time to react, Lin Fan punched accurately into its skull!

Massive Qi, combined with all the strength within his body, exploded instantly!

"Crack—!"

The leader-level Soul Hound's skull shattered upon impact, and its ink-green Soul fire was extinguished instantly, like a candle blown out by a gale.

Almost simultaneously, the nine ordinary Soul Hounds under its command stiffened mid-charge.

The sickly green flames in their eyes began to flicker frantically, unstable, full of chaos and confusion.

With their shared perception severed, they were like computers that had suddenly lost their internet connection, falling into a state of System crash.

The other two squads paused their attack due to this sudden turn of events.

Now was the time!

Lin Fan didn't even look at the remaining Soul Hounds; his body began to glow once more.

But this time, the light didn't point outward; it collapsed inward frantically.

Precision self-destruct.

"No need to see me out."

The white light flashed and vanished.

The violent energy engulfed the confused Soul Hound squad, along with the other two squads that had just reacted, all at once.

[You have died...]

[Final Rating: A+]

[Congratulations! You have received an A-Rank reward: 'Divine Soul Sting' (S-Rank · Active)!]

...

"What?!"

On the "immortal throne", the Demon Leader smashed the armrest of the throne into powder with one slap.

On the screen, the signals representing the three Soul Hound squads all vanished at the same time.

The final image was that bug, using an incredible method to instantly appear behind the Ninth Squad leader and killing it instantly with one punch!

Humiliation!

This was a more blatant humiliation than detonating the Bone Relic Furnace!

The opponent had not only found the Soul Hounds' weakness but had even turned the tables, treating his hounds as prey!

"Trash! You're all trash!"

The Demon Leader's roar made the Soul fire in the entire great hall sway.

Below the hall, all the generals were silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Just then, a figure wearing gray robes, withered and gaunt like a lich, slowly walked out from the shadows.

He was one of the Demon Leader's most capable adjutants, an ancient lich proficient in Formations and curses.

"General, calm your anger." The lich's voice was hoarse and dry, like dry bones rubbing together.

"This bug is no longer ordinary prey. Every time he appears, it is accompanied by death and chaos; he is like an unpredictable plague. We must change our strategy."

The Demon Leader's blood-red gaze locked onto him.

"I propose we set an internal codename for him — 'plague god'," the lich said slowly.

"At the same time, issue a 'plague god Alert' to all fleets. From now on, in any patrol area, once any unexplainable abnormal spatial fluctuation occurs, regardless of what it is, no confirmation needed, immediately conduct indiscriminate saturation strikes with maximum firepower!"

"Better to kill a thousand innocent than to let one escape!"

The rage in the Demon Leader's eyes gradually turned into cold killing intent.

"Very good."

The lich continued, "But that is not enough. Passive defense will never catch a rat that knows how to tunnel. What we need to do is prepare a trap for him that he cannot refuse and absolutely cannot escape."

A star map appeared in his hand.

He pointed to one of the green continents marked as completely occupied.

"Qingmu Continent. A world filled with rich life energy. According to intelligence, a Sect from the Spirit Realm called 'Cuiyun Sect' is barely hanging on in this continent. Since this 'plague god' is a Cultivator from the Spirit Realm, he will never sit idly by while his own kind cries for help."

The lich's mouth twisted into a ferocious arc.

"I will personally take action, using the entire continent as the eye of the Formation, to set up the [Infinite Soul Realm Curse Formation]. Once this Formation is activated, the Souls of all living beings within it will be contaminated by an indelible curse."

"Doesn't that 'plague god' have Infinite Resurrection?"

"Then let him taste the experience of resurrecting again and again while carrying an eternal curse, each time more painful than the last, until his Soul is completely corroded and melted!"

Listening to this incredibly vicious plan, the Soul fire in the Demon Leader's eyes finally erupted with unprecedented, cruel, and gratifying light!

...

Immortal Alliance, secret base.

The atmosphere was as oppressive as solidified lead.

The Black Tortoise Holy Lord looked at the intelligence Jade Slip in his hand, his face pale, devoid of any color.

"Qingmu Continent... about to be blood-sacrificed... a lethal Formation targeting Souls has been set up..."

"Requesting reinforcements? What do we have to rescue them with?" A Mahayana Stage Cultivator gave a miserable laugh.

"We can't even confront a regular fleet head-on, let alone break into a lethal trap set personally by the enemy's adjutant!"

"Give up. We... are powerless."

Feelings of sorrow and helplessness spread among all the high-ranking members of the Immortal Alliance.

Li Hanyue stood quietly in the corner, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword, her knuckles white from the force.

She silently exited the great hall and took out a special communication Jade Slip.

The light flickered, connecting to that starship in the underground rift.

"What's wrong?" Lin Fan's slightly lazy voice came from the other end of the Jade Slip.

Li Hanyue took a deep breath and told him the intelligence about Qingmu Continent, including the trap called the [Infinite Soul Realm Curse Formation].

Her voice was as cold and clear as ever, but it could not hide the trace of trembling she was desperately suppressing.

She did not make any request, only stated a fact. A desperate fact.

The other end of the Jade Slip fell into a long silence.

Just when Li Hanyue thought he wouldn't answer, Lin Fan's voice sounded again.

"Curse Formation? Targeting Souls?"

In the starship cabin, Lin Fan's gaze fell on the star map that the System had just synchronized and updated.

The coordinates of Qingmu Continent were marked as a shocking, blood-red vortex.

[Warning: Extremely dangerous target detected — Infinite Soul Realm Curse Formation!]

[Analysis: This type of curse poses the theoretically highest level of threat to "Infinite Resurrection". Once contaminated by its core curse power, there is an extremely low probability of resurrection failure, or carrying an unremovable negative brand after resurrection.]

[Settlement prediction: If you can successfully self-destruct in the core area of this Formation and cause irreversible damage to the Formation, you are expected to receive an EX-Rank rating!]

Lin Fan looked at the golden text "EX-Rank rating," and the laziness on his face vanished without a trace.

Replacing it were eyes brighter than stars, burning with fanaticism.

A threat?

No.

This was not a threat.

This was an invitation of the highest level, personally issued by the great System!

He smiled at the Jade Slip—a smile of extreme brilliance that Li Hanyue could not see.

"Tell the Immortal Alliance, don't worry about it."

"I'm clearing this dungeon."